Here are three photos from this time. I approximate the portrait photo as the 1950s. It has a Photography Studio address on the back that pre-dates the beginning of 5 digit zip code and Bernard looks a little heavier. Next is the cropped and close up of a polaroid of Bernard in his aunt’s basement during the time of the One-Man-Band where he looks a little thinner probably early 1960s. The third photo was marked on the back as Washington DC. The instrument case says “Cheyanne Schatz One (Man) Band. I know he traveled and performed during this time. I remember seeing a clipping of a performance in Chicago. Given what he told me about his trip to Moscow, I wonder if he went to DC to apply for the artist exchange program that sent him to Moscow.

So at this point in the autobiographical manuscript we are approximating the year to be five years later than the divorce of Wife Number 1 which may be in or about 1956 or 1957. Add the five years to be mentioned in his paragraph below and it brings us to 1961 or 1962:

AN INTERVENING INTERLUDE

I became seriously distrustful of women following the events of my first marriage marriage and so I avoided intimate contact with them for an extended period. And then, five years later, I gave a party in the honor of my parasitic Cousin Tom. One of the female guests appeared to be interested in me. She lingered awhile after the others had left. She noted that I did not show an interest in her or the other females at the party and wondered why this was so. I told her about the experience of my married life and how it had led me to become distrustful of women. She stated that it was silly of me to base my feelings toward women on one experience that had gone wrong. She said that she found me to be physically attractive and proceeeded to demonstrate by word and deed how strongly she felt this to be so. One thing led to another, and before I knew it we had consummated a carnal relationship.

Immediately upon doing so she became exceedingly hysterical and cried out that we had sinned against God! Her hysteria lasted for several hours and it was three in the morning before she was sufficiently calmed down that I could drive her home. When I walked her to her door she slipped me a piece paper with her phone number on it and asked me to pleas call her.

WIFE NUMBER 2

This brings us to approximately the year of 1965. I had returned from my trip to the Soviet Union (please see the section entitled my Trip to the Soviet Union, or; How I Confronted and Chased With Some Vigor Two KGB Agents Because They Had Acted In An Affontatory Mannner, Or; Why I Was Indebted To Errol Flynn And His “Wicked Wicked Ways”) and had become an entertainer. I was known under the banner of several names, such as Cheyanne Schatz, One Man Band; Ken Barger, Magician Extroirdinaire; Obediah Klowder, Singer of Inspirational Songs; Romeo Lejois, Singer of Romantic Songs (this was before I became L-15). I performed in and around Los Angeles in bars, nightclubs, and at private parties. I appear on various T.V. shows including several on Steve Allen’s and Regis Philbin’s when he co-hosted with a particular conservative (initials R.D.) who later was elected to congress from Orange County, and who later still became an extremely poor loser for that same congressional seat. Educational Television, the forerunner of Public T.V, did a documentary on me, mine appears between those of Upton Sinclair and Dizzy Gillespie (the name of the series was”Celebrity Series—One of a Kind.” This will all be discussed in the section Show business Days!)

Here we shall stop with today’s manuscript content and offer some background and explanations. These are the words (misspellings and grammatical idiosyncrasies and all) of Bernard G. Schatz. I would also say that his writing becomes very much a stream of consciousness. He has begun is chapter on Wife #2 and given us more content that matches the interlude. However, I am grateful for this because we may never see any more of those interlude details he refers to as a later section of the autobiography. They don’t appear in the 42 manuscript pages I have found.

I had heard him mention the Soviet Union trip and the KGB agents in person. The trip and its purpose was referred to on one of the recordings of the Steve Allen Shows, but no mention of Errol Flynn.

So here I must chuckle to my self about his overly verbose titles as both a blessing and a curse for us, the readers, of his rambling style. That is all we shall get in written content but his art and some old video recordings will add some color to this sparse history.

Here we have a web page containing video copies of the three appearances on the Steve Allen Show and the One of a Kind documentary by the educational channel KCET:.

L-15 had a very comprehensive Gallery exhibition in Richmond Virginia in 2004 that spread through 3 gallery halls. Gallery Number 4 specifically has these surviving photographs related to this period of the life of Bernard G. Schatz on the web page. If you want to see the complete exhibition you need the previous web page’s link.

Next posting we will actually begin with the first paragraph in the manuscript that is actually about WIFE NUMBER 2.

]]>http://www.l-15.org/art_blog/2018/02/07/part-5-an-intervening-interlude-wife-number-2/feed/0Part 4 My Three Wives OR: My Adventures with…http://www.l-15.org/art_blog/2018/01/29/part-4-my-three-wives-or-my-adventures-with/
http://www.l-15.org/art_blog/2018/01/29/part-4-my-three-wives-or-my-adventures-with/#respondMon, 29 Jan 2018 21:24:14 +0000http://www.l-15.org/art_blog/?p=87Continue reading "Part 4 My Three Wives OR: My Adventures with…"]]>This chapter or section of L-15’s autobiography has a huge title. And it covers pages 9 through 42 of the actual manuscript that was found. We shall cover the sub-section titled Wife Number 1 in this posting. We began with his childhood trauma which centered around his mother and the vague but obviously forced separation from Mother and two un-named younger siblings. We next see in this posting a second severe disappointment that centers on women in the life of Bernard Schatz. So here, in his own words, is the first part of the large chapter:

MY THREE WIVES OR:

MY ADVENTURES WITH THREE IDIOT MARRIAGE COUNSELORS DURING MY MARRIAGE TO WIFE NUMBER THREE OR:

MY MARRIAGE TO WIFE NUMBER THREE OR:

HOW DID THAT EVER HAPPEN TO ME? OR:

I HAVE HEARD OF A “B–CH ON WHEELS” BUT NUMBER THREE WAS ON JET SKATES!

Subtitled: WIFE NUMBER 1

The first of these three marriage experiences occurred about six years following the Jeffrey G. /Calotta Monte adventure. By that time I had been in college for seven years and had graduated from physical therapy school. It so happened that I was going with a young lady who had also graduated physical therapy school. As a matter of fact we had been going together for a period of two years. Although I was a practicing physical therapist my core identity was (and still is) that of an artist. As a matter of fact I had set aside $2,500 ( a sizable amount in those days) so that I could take off a couple years and travel around the Greek Islands and live the life of an artist. I had purchased a ticket on a freighter that took on passengers an was awaiting its departure a few weeks hence when I would start my life as a real artist.

Now as I say this young lady and I had been going together for two years. We shared an interest in music, art, and of course we were both physical therapists. We had a lovely and loving relationship. For example, on weekends we often took walks through the woods. I would work on drawings and paintings and she would read to herself so as not to disturb my concentration. In the evenings we might listen to the opera or just talk about things (this was at a time when young people did not immediately move in with one another).

As the time for my departure for the Greek Islands approached, this young woman brought to mind how painful our separation would be. She pointed out our commonality and the love that we shared. Conversations, somehow, drifted toward marriage. She indicated that a marriage between the two of us would be quite wonderful. My position was that I had always felt quite strongly that I wanted to be a serious artist, not just a Sunday painter. I had read about artists that had led bitter an disappointing lives because they had encumbered themselves in relationships that prevented them from pursuing their artistic goals, and not withstanding the tender feelings I had toward this person, I simply could not allow this to happen.

She parried this line of thought by pointing out that she had a career that she loved and that it would give her immense happiness to help nurture my development as an artist. She pointed out that her salary could easily support both of us and that she would gladly share anything she had with me, no matter how long it might take, even if I never became a successful artist. She admired my determination and wanted deeply to become my wife.

The subject of children came up. We both loved children and I pointed out that because of my determination to become a serious artist children might never be possible ( I was well acquainted with Thomas Rawlinson’s cartoon “The Married Artist”). She said that as much as she loved children and wanted to be a mother, her love for me, and her admiration for my strong commitment to become an artist overrode her maternal desire. She did not want anything to stand in the way of my becoming a successful artist. Far from being an obstacle to my artistic aspiration, a marriage between the two of us would nurture and support my hopes and dreams.

Well, it sounded wonderful. I would not have to leave the woman I loved and who deeply loved me. And so I cashed in the ticket to the freighter and put the $2,500 as a down payment on a home ($10,000 to $12,000 bought a lot of home in those days) and we got married.

I remember quite well that as we lay close together on our nuptial bed she said to me in a voice that I had not heard before and in a tone that caused my blood to run cold: “You will never be able to satisfy me.”

When we returned from an exceedingly grim honeymoon my bride provided me with several announcements:

She was contemplating suicide.

She was humiliated by the thought that she would have to support me for the rest of my life and that this would embarrass her terribly if her friends and co-workers found out.

She wanted to get pregnant as soon as possible.

I would have to get a job.

I would have to drive her to work.

In additions to these announcements she acted in an extremely agitated manner. For example, when I was in the process of driving her to or from work she would occasionally reach for the car door with the stated intention of opening it an hurling herself out onto the road in order to kill herself (I had to reach over from time to time in order to restrain her from pursuing this endeavor while at the same time attempting to keep control of the car as best I could). She screamed and cursed. She hurled objects such as dishes onto the floor.

I immediately contacted her family and told them what was happening. They informed me that she was having one of her “black moods.” My initial inclination was to bug out, I felt I had been deceived. I felt that the marriage was null an void because the woman I thought I had married was not the woman I had actually married. But I was concerned that she might indeed commit sucide, and for some reason that escaped me I actually felt twinges of guilt.

So I thought I would get some psychiatric advice. I asked around for the name of a good psychiatrist. Dr. Anthony DiNolfo was suggested and I accordingly made an appointment to see him. I described the situation and told him that I was inclined to leave it as soon as possible but that I was concerned about the sucide threats of my bride. He told me that her threats might or might not be real ones, but it would probably be in her best interests if I could stick it out until she could be seen by him or another psychiatrist. I decided to stick it out.

My nerves were rattled by all of this and I couldn’t concentrate on anything besides the antics of my new bride and so I ceased to do any art work. My whole life was focused on my bride and how to get her to a psychiatrist. She was reluctant to see one and so I endured a few months of the above goings on before she finally agreed to see Dr. DiNolfo (this is simplifying what turned out to be very complicated). Fortunately for my bride she responded well and rather quickly to the sessions with Dr. DiNolfo. In any event she calmed down and stopped screaming, throwing things, and threatening suicide. I called Dr. DiNolfo after a while and he felt my bride was well along in her therapy and that I could safely leave the marriage scene.

I discussed with my bride why I (was) desirous of exiting from married life. She felt that we should give it another go, but I had lost all confidence in her veracity and left. The entire episode of my first marriage lasted four months. My bride accepted the house I had purchased, as a token of my esteem (I later learned that she sold it and used the proceeds for an extended European vacation).

That ends the smaller subitled section on the first wife of L-15. I can understand how relationships can have two sides and two different perspectives. But given this account I am more sympathetic toward his perspective given the details of the story from his point of view. I had heard him give an oral account of this story once a few years ago long before reading this account. They match and I can at least testify as to the emotional impact the experience had on him. The emotional experiences between L-15 and women in his life will leave more of an influence on his art as life goes on, but it will not be without interludes of some happiness. I want to note here that the manuscript was preceded with this dedication:

I dedicate this book to Anna (his only daughter, with his third wife) for whom I want to stick around as long as possible so I can see as much as possible the interesting and exciting things she gets into. I also dedicate it to C., (his third wife) as she was when we first met. I miss and still love that person.

The next posting from his autobiography will be the subtitled section: “AN INTERVENING INTERLUDE.”

]]>http://www.l-15.org/art_blog/2018/01/29/part-4-my-three-wives-or-my-adventures-with/feed/0Part 3 How I Lost My Virginity or: My Carnal Connection with W.C. Fieldshttp://www.l-15.org/art_blog/2018/01/23/part-3-how-i-lost-my-virginity-or-my-carnal-connection-with-w-c-fields/
http://www.l-15.org/art_blog/2018/01/23/part-3-how-i-lost-my-virginity-or-my-carnal-connection-with-w-c-fields/#respondTue, 23 Jan 2018 18:33:49 +0000http://www.l-15.org/art_blog/?p=76Continue reading "Part 3 How I Lost My Virginity or: My Carnal Connection with W.C. Fields"]]>Part 3 of the autobiography of Bernard Schatz (L-15) “My Life as a Bastard” continues after some significant and extensive gaps. He said it was too painful to experience it all over again as it was put to paper. I believe him. But, I want to note that his avoidance of talking about his own pain never prevented him from creating painful or haunting expressions in his artwork. So, as I am thinking of some of these expressions, now I am struck by the visual effect of seeing these blank pages in his manuscript. He says he makes them a specific length to correspond to the estimated size of the content of those memories. And then it hits me that this is an artist’s intentional design of a “negative space.” I shall now be viewing his art, especially his Inter-Galactic Angels, and the negative spaces in the eyes of the raku sculptures of Angel ‘skulls,’ very differently now (these numbered #104 through #108 and one numbered #113 are good examples). It is this realization of the pain within the negative space that I now contrast with the beauty of the surrounding surfaces of his angels.

However painful some memories are to L-15, he has others that fall into the category of his whimsically teasing tendency. And that is where we go next with Part 3 of his lost autobiography.

HOW I LOST MY VIRGINITY

OR

MY CARNAL CONNECTION WITH W.C. FIELDS

I was an extremely shy lad, and I also had a great fear of getting a lady pregnant and thereby being forced to assume the responsibilities of fatherhood at an early age and so I maintained my virginity as I approached my twentieth year.

It so happened that at the time (1950) I was taking a theater arts course at Los Angeles City College. It also happened that there was another theater arts student by the name of Jeffry G. (son of the director Ralph G.). Jeffrey was extremely handsome, stood about six foot thee, had huge shoulders, and was as swishing a queen as can be imagined. Jeffrey took a fancy to me (I was what can be described as a “pretty boy”) and lusted after my body.

He contrived all kinds of maneuvers to consummate a successful seduction even though I informed him at the start of our friendship that I had no inclinations toward the male gender. I recall one time he took me to a well known watering hole, the Bar of Music, located on Melrose Avenue, supplied me with an identification card that stated I was over the age of twenty one, and proceeded to order “boiler makers” for the two of us. After a number of them had been downed he took me fora drive up to the Hollywood Hills in his classic Cord convertible. He parked at an overlook that provided a beautiful panorama of Los Angeles with all its sparkling lights that was spread out before us.

As I was admiring the view Jeffrey suddenly groped my crotch and attempted to stick his tongue into my mouth. Pulling myself away I exclaimed: “Jeffery, you promised!” Jeffrey plighted his love for me and said he had to have my body, he could wait no longer, and pulled me toward him (he was very strong and I was somewhat under the influence). However, I managed to escape from his grasp, opened the car door, and ran around to the front of the car, Jeffrey following. For the next several minutes I ran around the car with Jeffery in (hot) pursuit. He said he would give me anything in exchange for experiencing my body. He said that the title for Cord was in the glove compartment and that he would immediately sign it over to me. He said He was wearing an expensive gold ring which he would take off and give to me if I would only submit to his desires.

I told him that if he didn’t stop all this nonsense that I would be forced to walk home. He finally cooled down, promised to behave, and drove me home. He then hit upon a different strategy (I figured this out later). He calculated that once I lost my virginity that he would have a better chance to consummate a physical relationship between the two of us. And so he started to look for a sexual partner for me.

The first person he selected was a lesbian friend of his. He told her that I was a virgin and asked her to please let me know her body (this was at a luncheon he had arranged for the three of us). She said no, she would not be interested in such a thing. Jeffrey pointed out that it would be no big deal and that he had done favors for her in the past. But she persisted in her refusal, so Jeffrey had to continue his search for a first time partner for me.

The next person that Jeffrey selected proved to be a success. Jeffrey was friends with one Carlotta Monte, the long time mistress of W.C. Fields. Jeffrey called me one day and told me that Carlotta would be pleased to help out a young virgin. Indeed when I called Carlotta she sounded very nice and pleasant and invited me over to her apartment. I found Carlotta to be just as nice (even nicer) in person. And so I lost my virginity, although sadly it did not turn out well for Jeffrey because the experience confirmed my belief that I was inclined toward an interest in the female gender and not that of the male.

But the exciting , almost spiritual thing about the adventure was something that came to mind years after the event. I have always been an admirer of W.C. Fields. It has dawned on me that we shared something of great intimacy and importance: the last carnal experience of W.C. Fields was in the same exact area where I had my first carnal experience. W.C. Fields and I will always share a strong common bond. When he and I meet in heaven some day we will have something to discuss. Come to think of it, Carlotta will probably be up there too….hmmm.

Now let’s jump ahead to what became monumental life experiences .

We will now discuss: MY THREE WIVES…

There are 42 pages of manuscript before it abruptly ends and we are on page 9 at this point. I will have to end here and consider how to continue with more timely segments. It is likely we will take on one wife at a time, but I will leave you with Bernard’s overly verbose title that covers the remaining pages through page 42:

MY THREE WIVES

OR;

MY ADVENTURES WITH THREE IDIOT MARRIAGE COUNSELORS DURING MY MARRIAGE TO WIFE NUMBER THREE

OR;

HOW DID THAT EVER HAPPEN TO ME?

OR;

I HAVE HEARD OF A “B–CH ON WHEELS” BUT NUMBER THREE WAS ON JET SKATES!

]]>http://www.l-15.org/art_blog/2018/01/23/part-3-how-i-lost-my-virginity-or-my-carnal-connection-with-w-c-fields/feed/0Part 2 “Earliest Memories”http://www.l-15.org/art_blog/2018/01/17/part-2-earliest-memories/
http://www.l-15.org/art_blog/2018/01/17/part-2-earliest-memories/#respondWed, 17 Jan 2018 16:33:21 +0000http://www.l-15.org/art_blog/?p=66Continue reading "Part 2 “Earliest Memories”"]]>Continuing from the recently found transcript of an unfinished autobiography of L-15 (Bernard Schatz), I will remind the reader that L-15 is intending to leave gaps in his account that correspond to his most painful memories. Also, this appears to have been written (per his own copyright note) in 1999. My notes on L-15’s time line of events show:

1929 or 1930 his mother Julia, age 17, visits a family friend of her mother on her way to college.

1931 November is his birth about a year later;

1942 marks his separation from his mother (and according to his brief account to J.C. just before dying he was separated from two younger siblings to whom he was very attached);

1981 (at age 50) L-15 says after an absence of about 40 years is when he went to see his mother Julia to learn more about his past;

2015 (at age 83) he speaks with his friend J.C. of “being a bastard” just days before his death.

2017 December we find and begin reading his story which continues with part 2:

EARLIEST MEMORIES

My very earliest memory is of running wildly down a sidewalk and approaching a curbing. Grandfather Leon came from behind and snatched me up just before I reached the curb. I recall that I was dressed in a pink snowsuit outfit (Jumper sort of thing). I must have been about two years old This would have taken place in Baltimore, Maryland.

Another early memory: I was old enough to urinate standing up into a commode. I recall waking up during the night and sleepily wee-weeing into a commode. Midway through this process I realized by the splashing sound the the cover of the commode had been left down and I was wee-seeing onto the cover of the commode.

And finally: I distinctly recall the smell and sight of open barrels of herring and pickles in Uncle max’s delicatessen. Max was not really an uncle. He was married to Sophie who was a cousin to Grandma Dora. They also came from Dvinsk. I recall referring to Sophie and Max as Aunt Sophie and Uncle Max. I must have been about four.

********************

Two blank pages occur in the manuscript before L-15 continues his story.

********************

And so, I was taken in by Aunt Sylvie and Uncle Maury and their son Cousin Tom.

(Oh, I should have mentioned above that Grandfather Leeon was a pharmacist and was fully capable of mixing up a concoction that could have doped up Mother Julia during her “marriage.” And, knowing the family of the Matriarch as I now do, I fully realize that they were morally capable of perpetuating such a terrible thing).

********************

Two blank more blank pages occur in the manuscript before L-15 continues his story.

********************

And so we now skip to when I was nineteen years of age.

Yes, we are all experiencing an L-15 “Cry to Heaven” moment. I am sure that in “Heaven” L-15 is having a laugh and telepathically sending the thought “Ah, negative space, it makes that which surrounds it all the more important, don’t it.” I am concluding that there are two pages of painful memories between age 4 and age 11 hidden in the negative space of two blank pages. Then we have the “Taking in of eleven-year-old Bernard” and two more blank pages of painful memories.

Here I will leave the manuscript written by L-15 before continuing with Part 3. Upon more careful reading I now see that the earliest memories of the young Bernard Schatz occurred in Baltimore, Maryland. The “escape” by his mother Julia took place when he was eleven years old. At that time she went from California to New York and later, but not much later, father Milton went to Pennsylvania with a new wife, Celia. At present we are all puzzled by the reference to the two younger siblings made by L-15 to his friend J.C. They are not mentioned in his manuscript. Two pages of negative space is there to give us the hint that much pain was felt by an eleven-year-old boy who lived then in California with an aunt, Sylvie or Sara, an uncle Maury (or Maurie L-15 was never good at spelling) and cousin Tom. Perhaps Julia had no legal right to him but had a way to take both of the siblings. Perhaps there was some other explanation; a conflict over young Bernard preventing him from staying with his mother and then later being left by his father when Celia enters the picture.

From my conversations with L-15 when he was in his late 70s I learned he had a half sister who e-mailed to him from North Carolina saying she wanted to get together with him and (review or process) their feelings about the father (Milton) they had in common. Alcohol and abuse was implied in the review of this relationship. But L-15 would have none of this. He said it was too painful and he did not want a relationship with his half sister at this cost of bringing up all of that pain again.

Because I have read ahead in this story and I have a greater context about L-15’s art and the titles he has given them, and then later re-titled them. I want to mention that there is a reference to a piece of L-15’s sculpture made in a film dated to 1985 as “Cousin Tom.” That piece he later described to me as part of his Vietnam series (a distressed, wounded, disemboweled figure he titled “War” on his web site: http://www.l-15.org/war.htm). Until today I had no clue as to who or why he would name that piece “Cousin Tom” in the 1985 film of his Blacksburg, VA exhibit presentation. Now, I see that reference very differently.

Part 3 will be coming up in the next blog posting (and there is more copy in this part of the manuscript instead of blank pages). That may be a sign of less painful memories and more whimsical recollections:

“HOW I LOST MY VIRGINITY OR: MY CARNAL CONNECTION WITH W.C. FIELDS”

]]>http://www.l-15.org/art_blog/2018/01/17/part-2-earliest-memories/feed/0The Lost Auto-Bio of L-15, Bernard Schatzhttp://www.l-15.org/art_blog/2018/01/15/the-lost-auto-bio-of-l-15-bernard-schatz/
http://www.l-15.org/art_blog/2018/01/15/the-lost-auto-bio-of-l-15-bernard-schatz/#respondMon, 15 Jan 2018 20:12:38 +0000http://www.l-15.org/art_blog/?p=60Continue reading "The Lost Auto-Bio of L-15, Bernard Schatz"]]>I must admit this will be a bit of a teaser. If you knew Bernard Schatz, L-15, he teased frequently. The appearances on the Steve Allen show in 1963 under the artistic name of Cheyanne Schatz are the earliest classic example (http://l-15.org/movies_L-15_cheyanne_1960s.htm). It appears that in 1999 he copyright marked (and probably wrote) part of an autobiography. I (Daniel Roell, fan & keeper of the L-15 archives) found the hard printed copy recently in December of 2017.

I must say I am gullible easily teased and a great sport. But Bernard would see me believing him and confess, his compassion prevented him from going on too long “yanking my chain.” Therefore you must understand the following story was written by Bernard (L-15) in his own style and we will forever wonder about the missing parts. (Like the negative spaces in the eyes of his sculptures they may haunt us, or whimsically tease us with our own fears.)

Therefore out of compassion to your dear reader, I tell you that this story is only a tease in the way he wrote it and so it is probably true in the facts it reveals. I believe it explains a lot about the artist and his art. It can be corroborated by his friend J.C. I don’t believe she has read this Autobiography yet. But I recognize it as the background of the brief story Bernard told her just days before his death in July of 2015. J.C. told me of her conversation with Bernard when she had her last visit with him. It was then that she helped him have a last conversation with his daughter by phone, reconciling the misunderstandings between father and daughter in a timely way. And she told me that he whispered to her, “I am a bastard.” So, you’ve been warned! His own words will draw you in and leave you with many questions unanswered. Here’s part 1 of “My Life As A Bastard! the memoirs of Bernard Schatz:”

“How I Came to be a Bastard”

A young woman (17 years of age) left New York on her way to enroll in her first year of college. She decided to stop over at some friends of her mother (her mother Lena had lived in the same village, Dvinsk, located on the border of Poland and Russia, as the matriarch Dora of the family that the young woman was going to visit).

The name of that young woman was Julia. The names of the members of the family that Julia was going to visit (for a weekend) were:

Dora……the matriarch

Leon……husband of the matriarch

Sylvia, ne Sara……daughter of the matriarch

Milton…….son of the matriarch

Maurie……husband of Sylvia

What Julia recalled when I was reunited with her after an absence of forty years (fifty years after all of this happened) was that her mind became rapidly befuddled after drinking something that she was given. She vaguely recalls a rabbi being involved and the members of the family. What Julia became aware of when her mind cleared was that she had just been married to Milton.

About a year after all of this happened I was born, a son of Julia and Milton. My name is Bernard. When I was eleven I became separated from Julia. We were reunited when I was fifty. At that time she told me that when she tried to divorce Milton (when I was eleven) she found out that a marriage had never in fact taken place. That probably accounted for the argument with the rabbi and the family that had targeted her to be the companion of their son. And so, when I was fifty, I learned that I was an illegitimate bastard.

I forgot to mention above that father Milton, at the time that mother Julia “escaped” from Milton and his family (from California to New York) his family quickly found another wife for him (by the name of Celia). They left for Pensylvania and were never seen again (by me). This time it was, I believe, a legal marriage.

I must mention that from time to time in these memoirs certain events will be touched upon that are so painful to me that I will be unable to discuss them. These events will be indicated by blank spaces, the lengths of the spaces will correspond as accurately as possible with the number of words it would have taken to fill the spaces had they not been so painful to me. The blank spaces will be enclosed by dots such as:

……………………

Blank Space

……………………..

This is where I leave Bernard’s written manuscript for now. Part 2 “Earliest Memories” will be in the next publication of this blog. We may feel and share L-15’s “Cry to Heaven” here in his words and see it in much of his art (www.L-15.org). But despite his tragic expressions I want you to know that there was a whimsical and compassionate heart beat behind them for nearly 84 years.

]]>http://www.l-15.org/art_blog/2018/01/15/the-lost-auto-bio-of-l-15-bernard-schatz/feed/0An Easy Access List to 14 Angels on eBayhttp://www.l-15.org/art_blog/2018/01/06/an-easy-access-list-to-14-angels-on-ebay/
http://www.l-15.org/art_blog/2018/01/06/an-easy-access-list-to-14-angels-on-ebay/#respondSat, 06 Jan 2018 17:58:14 +0000http://www.l-15.org/art_blog/?p=55Continue reading "An Easy Access List to 14 Angels on eBay"]]>Just to help followers of L-15 to keep up; I have been photographing and posting on eBay the medium sized Early Abstract Raku Angels of L-15.

#042 through #54 (with the exception of #044) are listed here (copy and paste this link) :

http://ebay.to/2DWLEK2

But for some reason #044 has been separated and is here (copy and paste this link) :

L-15 was working on his last works [The White on White Murals] in late 2014 and applying for a grant for funding to finish two more murals for the set of ten. He wrote a fascinating reflective and introspective narrative in response to a question in the application for that grant. I would like to open this new blog on L-15 and his art with its first post containing that narrative.

—Daniel Roell

Narrative Statement by Bernard Schatz (L-15)

I have been interested in and making art as far back as I can remember. I read the Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini at age twelve and have continued making art throughout my life no matter what employment I was involved in ie. as entertainer (Obedia Klowder, Cheyanne Schatz etc.), physical therapist, or author of Chronic Pain: The Overlooked Simplicity. As a Physical Therapist I used my sculptor’s fingers to become acquainted with the tissues of the body. I know this knowledge also helped me in my art process. I have often throughout my life studied the works of artists using books, photos and visits to galleries and museums.

In 1954 following my work at the Institute for Medical Research at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital and supervising the Cardiovascular and Renal Dialysis Department I took courses at UCLA. One [was] on embryology to finish my Pre Med requirements but others [were] in art. I studied ceramics under Laura Andresen and painting under William Brice. Later I studied ceramics and glazing under Martha Longenecker.

I was encouraged by Steve Allen’s recognition of my Schatzelodium as I performed on his show saying “You know I find this seriously attractive…and I think this is art. I’m quite serious. This is art!” At that time, I opened the Cheyanne Schatz Art Store. This attracted the attention of the producers of the KCET public television series “One of a Kind” and found myself among other subjects, artists, writers and musicians: Simon Rodia (Watts Towers), Upton Sinclair, Dizzy Gillespie and cellist Gregor Piatigorski. This store was intended to be short lived, and is preserved in that KCET documentary. It contained my sculpture of a Revolving Tower of Violent Toys [at 11:00 mark] as social commentary on wealthy persons making money on war toys for children during that early portion of the Vietnam War era. During this Los Angeles art period I was an apprentice for eightmonths with Bernard Zimmerman, a metal sculptor.

I continued with my art though supporting myself with my Physical Therapy profession until my move in 1974 from California to the Virginia / West Virginia mountains. There I receive a small grant as an artist from the State of West Virginia. By 1982 I had emerged from working in seclusion to establish relationships with members of the Art Department of Virginia Tech. A 1983 documentary “Bernard Schatz: Twenty Years…a Sculptor,”[Upper half of page] and exhibition featured a large number of sculptures I had created over the previous twenty years. In 1985 I was included in another film by the Va Tech Art Department [Lower half of page] featuring my art and my “Folk” presentation (comedy a la Cheyanne Schatz) regarding Southern Visionary Folk Art and the Jargon Society [Part 1 & Part 2]. They and other sponsors had included me in an exhibit of Southern Visionary Folk Artists. Here I was mentioned with the likes of Simon Rodia (in Tom Patterson’s introduction in the brochure) and exhibited with art by Rev. Howard Finster, St. EOM, Georgia Blizzard and others.

I was awarded Artist-in-Residence Grant in (1986-1987) at the Roswell, NM Center for Contemporary Arts. There also I developed a technique to raku solid clay bodies, including porcelain. Besides clay, I use a variety of materials for my art such as wax, plaster, resin, paint, fabric and wire. I have worked primarily on my own in a solitary environment, going from one form of art to another and accumulating thousands of pieces. These are predominantly sculptures and a nice over view of this work was represented in the Center’s exhibit (June–August 1987).

It was June of 1986. I had a hospitalization for extensive internal bleeding. Investigating for servers days, the cause was never found. The bleeding stopped and doctors could not explain why. So I imagined and created “Inter-galactic Angels Golk Golk and Tho Tho” as mythical forms and creatures. This is an example of an event that influenced my art.

I would say that I absorb influences from outside myself unconsciously and then express them through the visions that manifesting my art. It was after seeing the 1988 Joseph Campbell interview by Bill Moyers that I understood that synchronic relationship existed between my sculpture and society, its myths, its monsters and its heroes. Maybe this is why all these Biblical, classical and whimsical names and themes were repeatedly appearing in my sculptures. Much later (early 2000s) my daughter Anna read Campbell in college and remarked on the comparison of artists symbolism in my art and his writings.

An article appeared in Art Papers (1986 Jan/Feb) where my sculptures and performance was described by Tom Patterson “I would add that it went beyond comedy. Like the late Lenny Burce’s schtick, L-15’s stage act embodies implicit and explicit criticisms of society while taking the audience on a wild tour through the mind and imagination of a unique and brilliant artist. L-15 showed off the larger, more delicate pieces of his world that decorated the stage.”

In 1993 “Self Taught Artists of the South ‘Not By Luck’” was published with photographs of my sculpture and Tom Patterson’s comments on his visit to my home/studio in Charlottesville, Virginia. As a follow up I sent him a video tape of the KCET Documentary of which he wrote: “The most fascinating aspect of the film is seeing, in retrospect, how amazingly consistent this artist has been in his work, he restlessly energetic personality and his presentation of himself.” I invited Tom to my opening of Gallery Neo in Charlottesville later in March 1994. My web site shows that Gallery’s contents some of these sculptures have not survived. Tom gave a eulogy of the mock Memorial to L-15.

It wasn’t until 2004 that I had another opportunity for an exhibit. Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond allowed me to put thousands of my remaining pieces on display from January through March in their Anderson Gallery. Tom guest curated and wrote th copy of the six page brochure. There he captured more details about my sculpture, art in general and other biographical details.

In part he says: “Well-kept secrets have always held a fascination for the most of us, and the remarkable world of Outsider Art and its artists has alway guarded its secrets well. We are intrigued by these artists’ gifts, so often resulting in strange and exotic objects. Free of the ‘look’ of work developed within the canon of ‘formal’ art training, amazing things can and do happen. None epitomize this more than legendary underground artist Bernard Schatz aka Cheyanne Schatz; Obediah Klowder and recently the Great L-15.

I had seen some of L-15’s work some years ago but had never actually met him. Our guest curator Tom Patterson is one of the nation’s foremost authorities on Outsider Art, and when I discussed with him my wish to produce a major exhibition of this nature for the Anderson Gallery of VCU’s School of the Arts, he immediately told me the we had one of th nations’ finest Outsider Artists living right here in Virginia. I asked Tom to prove it and he did”

Between 2005 and 2013 I slipped back into that “well-kept secrecy,” but continued to work on my art and completed a book on “Chronic Pain the Overlooked Simplicity” to reveal the core of my knowledge and technique from my Physical Therapy career. The book has not sold well yet. But I am glad that I wrote it because I feel the method I discovered and described may be used in the future to help people with Chronic Pain. After putting finishing touches to the book I felt free to turn my full time attention to my art.

I received a grant from Tree of Life Inc. [TreeOfLifeArtists.org] to allow me to gather all of my stored art, documentation and records of my work to display on a web site. I have a huge number of pieces, mostly sculptures, are and small to unbox, measure a, photograph and catalogue. There are more than 600 web pages currently, with multiple views of sculptures per page. I hope to continue this process and continue producing new sculpts for the L-15.com [L-15.org] web site.

At 83, I believe my current series of sculptures are a culmination of all my art expressions an experiences over my entire life. They are bas reliefs on heavily gessoed torn canvas and appear as if they were taken from the walls of some mysterious ancient civilization. Eight have been completed and more are envisioned.

I am grateful to so many for their support to preserve my art. My thanks to Judith Page and Victor Faccinto with the Tree of Life’s grant that helps me display an catalogue my work on my web site. And my thanks to the writer in the art world like Tom Patterson, Ken Johnson from the New York Times an Roger Manley for his comments in the 1985 Southern Visionary Folk Artists brochure [Pages 3 & 4]which ring so true: “Why do visionaries more often than not create in spite of tremendous adverse pressure––pressue which almost inevitably results in the loss, dispersal or destruction of the products of years of creative activity.”